Ankle Boots: Flattering ways to wear them

 With ankle boots, there is basically two standard, universally flattering ways to wear them. 

The first way is to wear them with anything that sits above the knee. This is because the ankle boot tends to cut you off at the skinniest part of your ankle. To counter act this, you need to show the other skinniest part of your leg which is your knee. This lengthens the leg, and doesn't cut you off, making you look short. 

The second way is more for winter time, or for people who prefer to wear jeans. The same idea applies, so as the boot cuts you off at your skinniest, you need to show a bit of flesh above the boot to give the illusion of a lengthened leg. To do this, all you need to do is roll your jeans up, leaving no more than an inch between the top of your boot and the bottom of the roll.  This achieves the same goal as counter balancing. It lengthens the leg and we avoid looking like we have short legs. 

With boots, never pull your jeans over the top unless they are flared or a boot cut. If you wear skinny jeans with boots, roll them, or bunch them up so they are sitting just on top of the boot. We are giving the illusion of a lengthened leg.

I've included photos of five different types of boots to give an idea of how they can be worn. I have included a pair of heeled boots, two different style of ankle boots with a cut out, a short riding boot style and a pair of combat/military boots.

Heeled Boots

Tassle Boots with Cut-out

JC Coltrane style Boots

Short Riding Style Boots

Doc Martens

Of course with any style, your personal style works best. This is just simply a guideline. A lot of these boots can still look great all bunched up and grunge-y looking. or really neat and tidy rolls. It really doesn't matter as long as you are happy with how it looks. 

I hope you enjoyed this post!

Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Shannen xx

Photos taken on a Canon 600D

18-55mm lens used

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Matte Lip Creams; Swatches and Comparisons

At the moment, in the makeup world, there has been an insurgence of lip creams, glosses and stains. These are really good if you want a bright opaque colour, but don't like to reapply every hour or so. They are a great way to finish off any outfit, by either making it a stand out point, or matching it to an aspect of your outfit.

I have 3 Australis Velour Lips and 2 Lime Crime Velvetines that I am going to swatch and compare for you today. In my personal opinion, Velour Lips are a cheaper alternative to Velvetines, as they retail for about $15 whereas Velvetines are about $30.

Both brands are great if you are trying to abstain from purchasing cruel products, as they are both against animal testing. I'm not sure if either brand is completely vegan, but at least they are one step closer to being vegan.

I'm going to swatch Lime Crime first, as I only have 2. I also find that Velvetines are a much thinner formula than Australis. With every swatch, I'm going to include a photo with flash, and without so that you can get a better idea of what the colours look like.

The first colour is Utopia. It is a bright purple colour with pink, or warm, undertones. This formula is quite thin and I find two coats is perfect.

With Flash

Without Flash

The next colour is Wicked. Wicked is a dark, vampy red. This is thicker in formula than Utopia and only requires one good coat.

With Flash

Without Flash

The first Australis colour is called Rio'D. It's a very bright, even neon, orange. I find that the formula for these are very thick, and can be quite drying.

No Flash

With Flash

Second is called Ma-Li-Boo. This colour is a very bright pink. Its quite a true pink in my opinion, as I can't see it swaying towards warmer or cooler tones.

With Flash

Without Flash

Lastly, we have Ny-Cee. This is a real 50s pin-up kind of red. A lighter version to Lime Crime's Wicked. It's definitely blue based rather than orange.

With Flash

Without Flash

I hope this post helped you out with the different matte lip products you can get. This is just comparing two different brands, but there are countless more out there on the market. If you liked this post, let me know and I can see what other lip swatches and comparisons I can do.

Shannen xx
Photos taken on a Canon 600D
18-55mm lens used
PicMonkey.com used to edit photos

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China Glaze Nail Polish Swatches and Impression

From L-R: White On White, Liquid Leather, Platinum Silver, Nova, Bridezilla

Now I think nail polish is the perfect accessory to finish of any outfit and because of this, nail polish has a small spot in my heart. I have a very large collection of nail polish, sadly hidden away in a massive hat box.

For christmas, I added to this collection. I received 5 colours from a China Glaze range that I now forget the name of. They are a white, black, sheer pink, silver and a glitter. All of these colours are amazing. The silver is crazy opaque and you only really need one coat of it. The white is also super opaque too, but two coats is needed for this to make it super white. The pink is nice and sheer, which is great when I don't really want much on my nails. It has a slight glitter reflect in it which is amazing. The glitter is a silver sparkle which coats the nails in so much glitter it's basically opaque. I paired this with the silver polish underneath, but I don't think it's even necessary.

First up we have Liquid Leather. This colour was super opaque after about 3 coats. It's also super shiny. This was taken without a top coat on.

Secondly is Bridezilla. As you can see, it's a very sheer shade that only adds a slight hint of colour and sparkle.

This is my favourite shade in the collection. Platinum Silver was opaque after the first coat but you see it here with two coats.

This last one shows both White on White and Nova. I did this because I never wore the glitter on it's own. The white was fully opaque after two coats. Nova was on top of Platinum Silver and has two coats of glitter.

Hope you enjoyed this!

If you did like it, let me know below!

Also, let me know if you wanna see more of this type of posts (:

Shannen xx

Photos taken on a Canon 600D

18-55mm lens used

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How To: Depot Jumbo Eye Pencils

I had a Collection eyeshadow pencil laying around that needed sharpening but I don't own a jumbo pencil sharpener. So, in order to remedy this, I did some research on how to depot jumbo eyeshadow pencils. This method works for any eyeshadow pencil, be it NYX, Collection or whatever. All you need is a small pot to depot it into, a mug, a microwave and the eyeshadow(s) you are depotting.

I used an empty ELF undereye Setting Powder pot. This turned out to be the perfect size. So you just need something about that size. They are 1.2grams or .04oz.

With the Collection pencils specifically, you need to remove both the cap and the end of the pencil, in this case its the black bit at the end of the pencil. This opens the pencil up making it easier to melt down. 

Once you've done that, the next step is to break the point off in the chosen container and then stand the pencil up using the broken shadow as stand. 

You then put the whole thing into a mug. This just protects the microwave from any spatter as well as helps keeps the pencil standing up. It also helps because you can just grab the mug and pull it out instead of grappling a small container.

Once you've got it in the mug, put it in the microwave and cook (melt) it for 1 minute intervals, checking each time, until it's completely melted into a liquid. At this point you can take it out of the microwave. I recommend pulling the pencil out, but leaving the container in the mug as the mug will be very hot.  I left my container in the mug until it had pretty much cooled down completely. It was still slightly warm to the touch, but nothing to worry about.

While it was cooling down, I grabbed some nail polish remover and wiped the label off the lid so it was just all black. I made a label on the bottom so I don't forget the brand or colour of the eye shadow.

I find it's much easier to use this way, as well as more pigmented. I'll probably do this for every shadow pencil I buy as long as I have an empty container to depot them into. And then I also don't waste product when I sharpen the pencil.

There is an alternative method to this. Instead of using a microwave, just melt it down with a hair dryer. Point the hair dryer down the pencil, so the heat is blowing into the shaft of the pencil. This method does take longer, but it might be less dangerous as the only hot thing you'll be holding is the hair dryer.

I used Collection's eyeshadow pencil in Vanilla Sky.

Shannen xx

Photos taken on a Canon 600D

18-55mm lens used 

Shoes make me happy. I'm superficial. Whatever

Today, I bring to you my shoe collection! It is definitely much smaller than it was last year as I moved out of home and into a much smaller space. I used to have over 40 something different pairs of shoes, with a much larger heel selection than what I have now.

These days I have 20 pairs of shoes, literally half of what I used to have. I hope to one day have an extensive shoe collection, when me and my beloved have got our own home and he's built me an extravagant walk in wardrobe with a glamorous chandelier in the middle of it all.

So currently, my shoe collection stands at 4 pairs of boots, 2 pairs of ankle boots, 1 pair of creepers, 4 pairs of converse/converse style, 2 pairs of vans/vans style, 5 pairs of flats, and 2 pairs of heels.

All my shoes are listed from the left, and the top row.

All my flats: -Leopard loafers (Rubi, part of a 2 for $30 deal)
                   -Sparkly loafers (Recycle Boutique, $4.50)
                   - Studded loafers (Rubi, $10 (?))
                   - Kitty loafers (Rubi, part of a 2 for $30 deal)
                   - Steve Madden dupes (Kmart, $7)

Converse/Vans: -White Converse (Shoe Connection, $100)
                         - Burgunday Converse dupes (Rubi, $10)
                         - Pink Converse (Recycle Boutique, $35)
                         - Black Converse (Shoe Connection, $100)
                         - Pink sparkly Vans (Shoe Connection, $120)
                         - Hello Kitty Vans dupes (JayJays, $20)

Boots: - Biker boots (JayJays, $20)
           - Studded combat boots (Hannahs, $50)
           - Cherry Doc Martens (TradeMe, $80)
           - Black Doc Martens (Shoe Connection, $250)
           - Floral combat boots (JayJays, $49.99)
           - Taupe ankle boots (Dotti, $30)
           - JC Coltrane dupes (Hannahs, $50)
           - Creepers (Hannahs, $50)

Heels: - Steve Madden Sparkly (Hannahs, ?)
          - Jeffrey Campbell Spiked Litas (Shoe Connection, $250)

All my shoes except one pair, I bought myself. Sadly I don't often get to wear my heels because my Steve Madden heels are exceptionally beautiful and I only reserve them for special occasions. My JC Litas I hardly wear mainly because my sister has them a lot, and they need spikes replaced and the leather fixed up. I would love to wear them more often, but I just never get the chance.

All my other shoes I alternate between them quite regularly. They all get an even amount of wear. I never really spent too much on a piar of shoes except for my JC's and my Doc's. That's only because my Doc's will last me a lifetime and I wanted to treat myself to a pair of really nice shoes.

Shannen xx

All photos taken on a Canon 600D
18-55mm lens used 
Photos edited on fotor.com

Lipstick Collection!

Now I know that my collection of 15 lipsticks isn't a very large collection, but it is my favourite type of makeup, so I tend to buy more lipstick than anything else. I always thought that reds were my favourite colour of lipstick, but now that I've gone through all of my colours, I can now see that I seem to gravitate towards oranges. I honestly would never have picked up on that ever. 

I feel that lipstick really completes my look. Whether I have minimal make up or I've gone all out an have my winged eyeliner done too. Even if I'm having a low self esteem day, putting lipstick on makes my day a little bit brighter and bearable. 

Lipstick adds a little bit of fun to any look, and makes you stand out just that little bit more. Because I have blue hair, any colour will go, but when I had pink hair, I found it much harder to wear lipstick because pinks were out of the question in my opinion, otherwise I would be overloading on the pink. Reds were also out as I felt it was too much from one colour family. So while I had pink hair, I didn't wear lipstick much, and I felt like I wasn't putting any effort into how I looked. Once I went back to natural hair, my love for lipstick grew even more and that was when my collection really grew. I could rock any colour I wanted and it wouldn't clash with my hair. It didn't help that my beloved loves it when I wear lipstick, so I bought more so I had a greater variety to pick from and not just a couple to alternate between.

The furtherest left picture, going down, I have Jordana Cherry, Lush A Million Kisses, Revlon Colourstay Ultimate Top Tomatoe and a random freebie that my friend gave me.

The middle left picture I have, going down, BYS Duo in Kiss Me Coral, Collection Passionfruit, Collection Mango Tango, Nutrimetics Flame and Australis Velourlips Rio'd.

Middle right I have, Collection Sweet Tart, BYS I Don't Pink So and BYS Flirty Fuchsia.

Lastly, on the very right I've got, BYS Baby Doll, BYS Cranberry Red and Australis ColourInject Grunge.

Hope you enjoyed!

Shannen xx

All photos taken on a Canon 600D

18-55mm lens used

Photos edited on fotor.com

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Tattoos: Permanent Fashion Trend

Tattoos are growing ever more popular as time goes on. I myself am a fan of creating beautiful pieces of artwork on  my body. I have a total of 14, and that number is still, slowly, growing. I am a believer in tattoos that don't necessarily have a meaning. If I like the design or the quote, I will get it done. Some of my tattoos have meanings like the Roman numerals on my bicep, they're for my sister. Or my pineapple on my ankle, that's for my beloved. But most of them are just things I like, for example my cats on my calves or my sunflower on my forearm. I love these things and they're nice to look at so I wanted them on my body.

As other trends in fashion, tattoos go through phases with certain styles being more popular than others. Over the last year or so I've seen sugar skulls rise up and then die down as the next popular tattoo idea came in. After sugar skulls there was a phase of the 'white girl' tattoo, that is infinity signs occasionally with words like 'love' and 'family' linked in there somewhere, or dream catchers, or anchors also with words like 'hope' linked into the anchor. Other popular tattoos during this 'white girl' phase were feathers and birds flying off into the horizon. This trend got so popular that it is now being mocked, with a picture of a 'typical girl tattoo form' floating around the internet.

With the growing popularity of tattoos, as well as the steadily growing acceptance of them, more and more people are getting them. These are a permanent fashion trend as they are with us for life. Different styles of tattoos will come and go, but there will always be fans of tattoos. It's a lifelong trend. One I will always love.

Shannen xx

All photos taken on a Canon 600D
18-55mm lensed used
Edited on fotor.com